Petition Against Forest Department’s Move to Capture and Tame ‘Muttikomban’
Kochi: The Animal Legal Force has submitted a petition to the High Court against the Forest Department’s move to capture and tame the wild elephant named ‘Muttikomban’. The Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary Warden had issued a press release stating that an elephant kraal (cage) was prepared to tame the elephant. Capturing and taming wild elephants included in Schedule 1 has been a crime since 1977. Elephants can be legally relocated from the forest only if they are identified as troublemakers; however, central government permission is required to relocate elephants from the forest.
The Animal Legal Force had previously approached the High Court against the illegal capturing and training of elephants PM-2 and PT-7 in 2023. The case is currently under the consideration of the court.
The petition alleges that forest department workers fired pellets into the bodies of the elephants, provoking them, and then placed them on the “troublemaker list” to initiate operations to tranquilize and capture them for taming. The petition also states that 15 pellets were found in the body of PT-7, which was captured three years ago, and more than 20 pellets were found in the bodies of the deceased elephants Murivalan and Thanneer Komban.
